Date: Sun, 2 Mar 1997 22:56:10 -0500 (EST)
Message-Id: <199703030356.WAA19452@freenet2.carleton.ca>
From: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca (Rick Scaia)
To: nfd@aimnet.com
Subject: The News From Dayton -- 03/03/97
Reply-To: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca
Sender: owner-nfd@majordomo.aimnet.com
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THE NEWS FROM DAYTON
For the week of March 3, 1997
Now Updated Almost Daily!
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Ken Shamrock Speaks! / Upcoming PPV Line-Ups
Read on for more on today's Headline Stories!
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The News -- For the Week of March 3, 1997
The News From Dayton, as always, remains a combination of the weekly Dayton
Daily News pro wrestling column, penned by Alex Marvez, and other pieces of
information I feel are unique and worth passing on to you, the Home Viewer.
If you are reading the NFD on one of the RSPW newsgroups, or anywhere on
the web other than the revamped News From Dayton Web Site, I strongly
encourage you to make the jump to the NFD on the web at
http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~ag725/HomePage.news.html
I think you'll find the trip worthwhile, as there are many exclusive
features to the NFD Web Site, along with updates on breaking news, so that
you don't have to wait a full week for the NFD's take on the latest rumors.
But for now, let's kick things off with Alex Marvez's column:
* The headline story for Alex this week is that of Ken Shamrock's
decision to join the WWF, after years of success in the Ultimate
Fighting Championships. In fact, the story is accompanied by a photo
of Shamrock working out at a gym in Cincinnati. Shamrock is on of the
biggest UFC stars, but with the future of UFC in so much trouble
because of legal threats and regulations, the prospect for making a
steady financial living as an ultimate fighter is not bright. Shamrock
said, "What closed the door to me with no-holds-barred fighting was
that I couldn't make enough money to support my family. If I do
something I like and can support my family, I will continue to do it.
The minute I can't I've got to do something else." UFC events have
been outlawed in many states, and can't even be aired on TV in Canada.
Recently, UFC was hit hard when they had to move an event from New
York State to Alabama, literally at the last second; the expenses were
enormous. Shamrock has only competed in one UFC event in the last
year; and in that event, he was forced to quit after sustaining a
broken hand in a first-round victory. Though pursued by New Japan Pro
Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling, Shamrock chose to accept a
3-year contract worth more than $1 million with the World Wrestling
Federation. The current plans are to have Shamrock step in as a
special referee for the Bret Hart/Steve Austin submission match at
WM13, leading to a feud with Austin; this despite Shamrock's encounter
with Faarooq at last week's Monday Night RAW. It should be mentioned
that Shamrock, who is 32 years old, was a pro wrestling for a while
before turning to the UFC style fights he became known for. About his
past as a wrestler, Shamrock said, "A lot of people thought I had
talent. But I couldn't make any money, so I changed jobs."
* Next, Alex recaps the ECW-flavored RAW from last Monday. While
knocking the WWF for "down-playing" the ECW matches, and specifically
saying that Vince McMahon acted "clueless" during ECW matches, Alex
says the appearance definitely accomplished what it set out to do:
raise national awareness for the April 13 ECW PPV. ECW head honcho
Paul Heyman told Alex, "We accomplished our goals. It was an
opportunity for us to expose certain facets of our product to a
national audience. Hopefully, that entices them to buy the
pay-per-view." Alex closes by saying that while all public signs point
to this having been both the beginning AND the end of the ECW/WWF
copromotion, you shouldn't be surprised if there is an ECW match held
at WrestleMania.
* WCW is coming to Dayton on April 18, for an event to be held at Hara
Arena. The top match will be Hall and Nash taking on Luger and the
Giant. Also on the card will be Randy Savage taking on DDP and an
Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko ladder match for the US Title. Tickets
for this show will go on sale on March 21. And it's been confirmed
that WCW Monday Nitro will return to Dayton on June 2, again at the
Hara Arena; tickets for the live Nitro are expected to go on sale at
intermission of the April 18 event.
* Alex Marvez's weekly Dayton Daily News Wrestling Column provides the
timely and accurate information that generally makes up a portion of
the NFD. Have you got a wrestling question you'd like answered as part
of Alex's weekly column? If so, Alex can be contacted via e-mail at
this *NEW* address: "alex_marvez@coxohio.com". And now, if you're in
the Miami Valley, you can listen to Alex's commentary on wrestling
(and other sports) on WING-FM (102.9) Mondays and Fridays at 7:20 a.m.
Due to time and computer limitations, Alex is no longer part of the
AOL Grandstand Wrestling Area.
Here are some other newsbites I've put together for you:
* If you don't want to know what happens on tonight's Monday Night RAW,
then skip this bullet, and go on to the next one. The 3/3 RAW was
taped on 2/26 in Berlin, Germany, and was highlighted by what is being
called a very good or better match between current tag team champions
Davey Boy Smith and Owen Hart, in the finals of the tournament to
crown the first ever WWF European Champion. Friction between the
current partners started early on in the match, and reached a peak
after the Bulldog reversed a pinning combination on Owen to score the
win. Owen refused to accept the loss, going so far as to accuse his
partner of being a cheater. Obviously, the split-up is imminent,
though the story will involve keeping these two on top of the tag
division for a while longer. In other action taped for RAW: the Sultan
defeated Flash Funk by submission (if this airs, I may become
physically ill).... Rocky Maivia successfully defended his IC Title
against Vader, thanks to Mankind's outside interference causing a
disqualification (Vader was not happy about this).... Bret Hart was
beaten by Hunter Hearst Helmsley, as a result of a disqualification
when Hart shoved the referee; after the match, Hart got into a
confrontation with HHH's valet -- the same women who has attacked
Marlena twice -- who is going by the name of China..... in a match for
the WWF Title, Sid was able to powerbomb and pin Mankind.... an
interview segment at the event had Ahmed Johnson accepting Faarooq's
challenge for a Chicago Street Fight at WrestleMania 13.
* Speaking of WrestleMania, the current line-up has got the
Sid/Undertaker title match on top, with Bret/Austin (submission match)
as a co-main event. Also, the Chicago Street Fight is penciled in,
along with a grudge match between Goldust and HHH, and a tag title
match pitting Owen/Bulldog against Vader/Mankind. Some are expecting a
double split to come out of that last match. In another announced
match, Rocky Maivia *will* defend the WWF IC Title at WrestleMania,
against an as-yet-unamed opponent. Most of the legit contenders are
already locked into matches, leading to speculation that WWF Magazine
Editor Vince Russo's promise of "new talent not currently with the
WWF" coming in by WrestleMania might be in reference to a surprise IC
challenger for Rocky. Also, in a recent AOL Chat, the Headbangers
indicated that they are going to wrestle on the card; with the Road
Warriors currently without a match, a rematch of the RAW contest from
last week seems likely.
* While on the topic of PPV line-ups, it bears mentioning that WCW's
Uncensored is coming up, and the top match on the card is the subject
of a lot of speculation. Heavy rumors are circulating (story first
broken by MiCasa) that a match pitting three five-man teams against
each other (NWO vs. WCW vs. Unalligned) might be the main event; this
match would pit an NWO team of Hogan/Hall/Nash/Savage/??? (rumored to
be Sting) against a WCW team of Giant/Luger/DDP/Steiners against an
unalligned team headed up by Roddy Piper and four as-yet-undetermined
partners (heavily rumored to be the former "Natural Disasters," John
"Earthquake" Tenta and Fred "Typhoon/Shockmaster/Tugboat" Ottman...
but IMODO, using Ed "Zodiac/Brother Bruti" Leslie and the Nasty Boys
would make 100 times more sense). The details of that match (or
whatever the top match(es) are going to be) should become obvious
soon, probably after tonight's Nitro. Confirmed matches for the
Uncensored PPV are: Rey Misterio Jr. challenging Price Iuakea for the
WCW TV Title, Eddie Guerrero defending his US Title against Dean
Malenko, and The Public Enemy taking on Jeff Jarrett/Mongo McMichael
in a Texas Tornado match.
* Moving from future PPVs to ones just past: buyrates for the first
batch of PPVs of 1997 are in. NWO Souled Out did the poorest of the
bunch, with around a .45-.50; both WWF PPVs (Royal Rumble and Final
Four) did approximately .60 business; and early returns for Superbrawl
indicate it may have scored in the .75 range.
* Up against the WCW Uncensored PPV on cable TV will be the first
Madison Square Garden WWF show to be televised in a long, long time. I
remember visiting relatives in Connecticut back in the late 80s, and
always hoping that there would be a MSG show on the Madison Square
Garden Network (the NYC equivalent of a SportsChannel-type channel).
And the return of this practice just happens to take place on March
16, at 7:30pm, nearly head-to-head with WCW's live Uncensored PPV.
This shouldn't be taken as a major offensive move by the WWF, as MSG
Network does not exactly have the cable penetration that TBS had when
WCW would run "Clash of the Champions" specials up against WWF PPVs
back in the 80s. However, the timing is more than a little
interesting. And the show is a real biggie, too, with a PPV-caliber
double main event. The top match is Sid defending against Bret Hart in
a cage match; the other big match is Vader taking on Undertaker in a
casket match. Most of the other WWF stars are scheduled to compete, as
well, including an IC Title defense by Rocky Maivia against HHH (if no
decent opponent can be scared up for Rocky at WM, it wouldn't surprise
me to see him drop the title to HHH here). The event will be replayed
on the MSG Network on Saturday afternoon, March 22, at 4pm.
* TNT is launching a new ad campaign to try to promote wrestling to the
mainstream more aggressively than in the recent past. The TNT/Nitro
ads will focus on the slogan "The Rules Have Changed!" and will
include a lot of WCW wrestlers. The ads will be run everywhere, with
an emphasis on outdoor and transit ads (at least in major metro
areas). In a further effort to promote WCW to the mainstream 18-34
set, WCW will also be running an event called "Spring Break-Out" that
will include a live Monday Nitro from Panama City, FL, on March 10.
From the sounds of things, this will be one of those lame-ass
organized fun, "MTV spring break" type events that attract fraternity
jocks and brainless females getting hammered after sharing two Zima
beverages. I'm sure it will be unique, though, and if it works as far
as getting some folks back to wrestling, then great. Just don't ask me
to hang out with all these new fans... unless the frat jocks stay
home. ;)
* Paul E. Dangerously had a fantastic chat session with fans on Prodigy
last week. [Blatant plug: Prodigy's wrestling board kicks ass, and Bob
Ryder should receive your eternal gratitude for putting together these
chat events.] He discussed his opinion of how ECW on RAW went off, and
what other plans are in the works for the weeks leading up to the PPV.
Right now, Paul says there's no further plans for ECW and the WWF
working together... but with so many places reporting that ECW will be
in Worchester, MA, for RAW on 3/10, that might be a swerve. The whole
chat is rather entertaining, and you can read it by clicking right
here.
* RAW on 3/10 may include some more ECW involvement, but it's known for
a fact that RAW after WrestleMania 13, on 3/24 in Rockford, IL, will
definitely include a Final Four-style elimination match for the WWF
Title, pitting Sid vs. Undertaker vs. Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin. Time
will tell if that is just the house show main event, or a match
scheduled to air on the live show...
* And to wrap things up, it's a look at the Monday Night Ratings from
2/24. As you might expect, WCW Nitro continued its winning ways, but
by a slimmer margin than usual... the overall two-hour ratings were
2.9 for Nitro against a 2.4 for RAW. The quarter hours saw the fifteen
minute period with ECW's first appearance and the Sunny/Marlena arm
wrestling contest beat Nitro; in fact, the RAW ratings bumped from a
1.9 in the first quarter hour to a 2.7 in the second quarter hour,
when ECW debuted. The first hour, total, saw a slim Nitro victory, 2.7
to 2.4. The second hour was a Nitro win, but by a larger margin: 3.2
to 2.5. The total wrestling audience actually grew for both shows in
the second hour. The quarter hour ratings for Nitro were
2.8/2.6/2.7/2.9/3.1/3.1/3.1/3.4; for RAW, they were
1.9/2.7/2.5/2.5/2.5/2.3/2.5/2.5.
* WWF pay-per-view dates for the foreseeable future:
o WrestleMania 13 --- Chicago, IL --- March 23, 1997
o In Your House --- Rochester, NY --- April 20, 1997
o In Your House --- Baltimore, MD --- May 11, 1997
o King of the Ring --- Providence, RI --- June 8, 1997
o In Your House --- Calgary, Alberta, Canada --- July 6, 1997
o SummerSlam '97 --- E. Rutherford, NJ --- August 3, 1997
o In Your House --- Louisville, KY --- September 7, 1997
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The News From Dayton
This compilation is Copyright 1995, 1997 by Rick Scaia
(ag725@freenet.carleton.ca)
All rights, if any, reserved.
Proper credit is given to sources of information whenever possible.
Reproduction of this document, or the contents thereof, is permitted, and
encouraged as long as: (1) in reproducing any part of this document, you
give proper credit to both the original source of information as well as to
"The News From Dayton," and (2) no profit is made from the reproduction or
distribution of this information (this info is not meant to be disseminated
via 1-900 lines or other media which cause the reader to incur a cost or
which generate any kind of revenue for the information provider!).
**************************************************************************
--
Rick Scaia | I'm on the Web now!
RSPW Posse Minister of OFFENSE | http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~ag725/
ag725@freenet.carleton.ca | Prepare to be Disappointed!!!
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